Rabbi Yitzchak Schwartz Phone Teacher Resume

I. Introductory Information

What follows is an offer to those special people who want to be taught or counseled over the phone, either one-on-one or in a small group. I've been doing phone consultations, usually an hour a week per person, for the last two years. My students include rabbis, C.P.A.s, lawyers, businessmen, stockbrokers, healers of various kinds, and a wide variety of people who wish to return to their Jewish heritage. Look below, under "approbations," to find what these individuals say about my teaching. My students are beginning to be curious as to what my other students are learning, and are starting to write web-site responses to my teachings. The result is a kind of international community, or "family" of learners. I encourage you to consider joining this unique family. Read on, and consider whether this might be something you are meant to do.

II. Personal and Educational Background

I was born in El Paso, Texas, and graduated from New Mexico State University. I've spent 22 years in Jerusalem and Beitar, and have a large family. I've studied for 18 years in Jerusalem's major Kabbalistic Yeshivot. My practice is to begin my studies at midnight, continuing for most of the day. I sleep only four hours each day. My teachers include the Kabbalist Rabbi Shmuel Darzi, head of Nayot Brama Yeshiva (8 years) and Rabbi Yitzchak Bracha, Kabbalist and head of Ateret Yitzchak Yeshiva and a Talmud Torah for boys and girls in Beitar (12 years). In my work I focus on translating the very abstract "code" of Kabbalah into a language that is understandable to everyone and that links Jewish mystical thought with the wisdom of other traditions. Practically, this has involved being a teacher, a co-writer of a book on reincarnation, a writer of numerous articles, and a Kabbalistic consultant to professional healers, business people, educators, etc. For the past eight years, I've worked as a counselor, both in and out of Jerusalem's Aish Hatorah Institute. Two years ago I founded the Paradise Principle Institute here in Jerusalem, which blends self-actualizing activities and Jewish spirituality. My aim in all these activities has been to help my clients achieve emotional healing, self-actualization, and transcendence.

III. Phone-Call Class Descriptions

The following are a sample of classes that I teach: perhaps one of these will appeal to you, or perhaps you would want a combination of them, or perhaps you will come up with something totally new.

1. Merkava
   Learning the essence and many associated realms of each of the ten sefirot Working with various weekly assignments designed to internalize each sefira in your life. Working towards attainment of a rich, sefiroticly full and healthy personality, despite obstacles Experimenting with some form of creative response to express that week's sefirotic theme (so far, students' replies have consisted of songs, poems, divine psychic communication, medical articles, dream interpretations, compositions, meditations, and business advice).


2. Counseling
   "Ratzon" counseling consists primarily of finding out your calling in life and then actualizing it. "Turkey healing" is a kind of spiritual and emotional transformation that involves freeing up our blocks and eliminating ways in which we sabotage ourselves (our "turkeys") through radical love and acceptance of oneself, others, and G-d.


3. Primal Judaism
   Primal Judaism consists of unleashing our own and Judaism's hidden wellsprings in a nuclear "primal" way. This includes the following:
   1. Torah learning
   2. Prayer, involving an 18-session course on each of the Amida petitions
   3. Mitzvah performance--both a general approach and one that is multi-mitzva
   4. "Mystical calendar"-- approaching Shabbat, the holidays, and virtually all of the calendar days with a thorough Kabbalistic understanding and a corresponding alignment of one's psyche
   5. Torah in exile-- an exploration of how the endless wisdom of Torah embodies virtually every kind of worldly wisdom, and guidance on how to bring those "sparks" back home.


4. Kabbalah (text learning is possible)
   1. Essential Kabbalah--learning the classic themes of Kabbalah, how they apply to your life and to the world, and techniques through which these themes can be internalized
   2. Applied Kabbalah--learning how the major paradigms of Kabbalah serve as a guiding light for many professions and areas of knowledge
   
   
5. The "Soul" of the Matter (text learning is possible)
   1. Identification of soul levels and work with them towards self perfection
   2. Gilgul neshamot (reincarnation), explored in both theory and practice
   
   
6. Creative Communication
   1. Written and oral replies to any and all of our courses
   2. 
      
   3. Workshops that encourage expression in music, art, writing, etc.
   
   
7. The Tool Chest
   Teaching various techniques and exercises designed to help you achieve transcendence in many areas of your life, including:
   • self actualization
   • G-d connection
   • healing
   • information processing
   • Teaching the fine art of being a creator and manipulator of spiritual tools, so that you can devise your own tools, contributing them to our tool chest

IV. Contact Information

E-mail me at YitzchakSchwartz@msn.com. My cell phone (which I prefer, since e-mailing for me involves delays) in Jerusalem, Israel is:  011 972 [0] 54 846 9522

. The best times to reach me, Israel time (7 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time) are 8:00 am to 9:00 pm, but you can leave a message anytime.

This website's classes and essays will give you an idea of the content of what I teach by phone, though, of course, they can provide only a small taste of what the private phone-call is like. They demonstrate, however, the way that a caller-student becomes a creative partner in shaping a class.

Payment for my classes is available in a non-profit format.

Approbations from my students:

Rabbi Yehuda Appel--Executive Director of Aish Hatorah Cleveland:

"Rav Yitzchak brings his own vast erudition in Kabbalah along with access to the great Kabbalistic masters of our time to provide a wonderful learning experience."

Rabbi Jonathan Feldman, PhD--Associate Director of the Manhattan Jewish Experience:

"Rabbi Schwartz is one of the outstanding teachers of Kabbalah today. I have studied under him for the past two years. His knowledge of Kabbalistic texts and his insight in their relevance to the life of the modern Jew is outstanding. I'd recommend him to any serious student of Torah who wishes to delve deeper."

Debra Chwast LISW, BCD, psychotherapist and cofounder of two Jewish spiritual organizations in Cleveland, Ohio:

"As a therapist for over thirty years, I have found that Yitzchak's teachings provide a unique opportunity for life-changing personal and spiritual transformation. When he speaks, you are in "Bina"--you hear what you know is true, but never formulated.

Rabbi Emanuel Gentilcore -- Executive Director of the Visiting Students Association at Jerusalem's and other college campuses in Israel:

"I personally recommend Rav Yitzchak's teachings to anyone wanting to transform their life. He has a vast knowledge of Kabbalistic sources and a gifted talent to turn esoteric truths into meaningful and practical lessons for positive change."